Kathmandu, July 31 - The hunger strike unto death by 30 Tibetans was called off today. The 30 hunger strikers in Jawalakhel, Kathmandu, were requested by community leaders and elders to end their hunger strike unto death. The hunger-strikers were reluctant to give up their brave protest, but were persuaded that Tibetans both in Tibet and outside Tibet needed them alive to be able to continue the struggle against the occupying Chinese government.

The protesters, all volunteers, and not centrally organized by any Tibet support group or organisation had been on fast for five days. 8 hunger strikers had to be hospitalized due fatigue and heat. The 30 Tibetans were recently arrested close to the Nepal-Tibet border while attempting to cross into Tibet

Wangchuk, a Tibetan resident of Swayambhu described the hunger strike unto death as ‘a last resort’ after international pressure has failed to alter the government policy on Tibet.

(Photo by Lhuboom/RFA)

Wangchuk added that the hunger-strikers wanted to bring international attention to the thousands of innocent Tibetans who have died under Chinese crackdown. The hunger strikers demanded Chinese president Hu Jintao to have ‘face to face talks with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’. The hunger strikers also called for Tibetan exiles and the media to be allowed into Tibet, after the Nepalese and Indian governments respectively stopped marchers from returning to their homeland.

(Photo by Lhuboom/RFA)

Tibetans in Nepal are increasingly finding themselves in a precarious situation, with the Chinese government mounting more pressure on the Nepalese government to prevent any ‘anti-China’ protests.